Oil Goes Berserk In Electronic Trading As WTI Passes $98

As Zero Hedge advised in early January when the severity of the Maghreb revolution was made all too clear to anyone not willing to stick their head in the CNBC sand, oil could well be the buy of a lifetime ahead of a downward spiral of unprecedented geopolitical proportions. Sure enough, today alone, WTI (April) has surged from $90 yesterday to over $98 in electronic trading (see below). Either this is some computer gone haywire in the closed session, or when America wakes up tomorrow we may be on the verge of another flash crash. As for Brent, it passed $108.50. As a reminder, and people forget this all too readily, each dollar jump in crude wipes out $100 billion in US GDP. That means that at face value, today's move in the commodity complex, may have taken out as much as 5% of annualized GDP when fully processed through the economy!

Brent crude oil
prices hit $108 a barrel for the first time since 2008 on Monday on
fears that spiraling violence in Libya could lead to wider supply
disruptions from the OPEC member.

U.S. oil prices led the rally
to jump by more than $5, the most in over two years, as traders also
rushed to cover short positions in the key Brent/WTI spread, which had
blown out to a record $16 a barrel. The April spread narrowed to $10
during the day, but widened to over $12 in after-hours trade.

The
focus was on deadly clashes in Libya, where one oil firm was shutting
down some 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) of production and others
evacuated staff. The leader of the Al-Zuwayya tribe threatened oil
exports to the West would be cut off unless authorities stopped
violence.

"The market is on edge
about the potential for Middle East and North Africa supply
disruptions," said Mike Wittner, head of commodities research, Americas,
at Societe Generale.

"If you've
got reports that actual disruptions are starting to occur, it's going to
have a supportive impact. A lot of it is high-quality crude and that is
important as well."

The
increasingly violent protests that appeared to put Muammar Gaddafi's
four decades of rule in jeopardy were the realization of weeks of
mounting concerns that Egypt-inspired unrest would seep into nearby oil producers.

Brent
oil futures, which have climbed more than $10 this year largely due to
the increasing geopolitical risk premium, jumped $3.22 a barrel, or 3.2
percent, to settle at $105.74 a barrel. They jumped another $2 to trade
as high as $108 in after-hours dealing, the highest since September 4,
2008.

The March U.S. crude oil
contract, which expires on Tuesday, surged $5.22 a barrel to trade at
$91.42 a barrel in late-afternoon activity -- the highest in two weeks.

Overall
trading volume was less than one-third the 30-day average due to the
U.S. Presidents Day holiday, and the U.S. market won't issue an official
settlement until Tuesday.

The
more-active April contract jumped as much as $5.75 to a high of $95.47 a
barrel, at one point narrowing the Brent/WTI contract by nearly $3 to
$10 a barrel as traders covered short positions built up as the spread
ballooned from about $3 in January to a low of $16 last week.

Brent's after-hours rally forced the spread back out to $12.40 a barrel.

LIBYA UNSETTLES

In
Libya, scores were killed in anti-government protests as one of the
region's bloodiest revolts hit Tripoli for the first time, while army
units defected to the opposition and Gaddafi's son vowed to fight to the
last man standing.

On Sunday,
Shaikh Faraj al Zuway, the leader of the Al-Zuwayya tribe in eastern
Libya, told Al Jazeera: "We will stop oil exports to Western countries
within 24 hours" should the violence not stop.

Ninety
percent of Libyan oil exports come from the eastern region of
Cyrenaica, epicenter of the revolt, and unrest there could pose a graver
threat to oil supplies than in other nations if separatists target
infrastructure and look for a bigger slice of revenues, analysts say.

"Libya
is a significant producer and exporter of good quality crude oil, and
threats by the tribal leader to stop production are worrisome," said
Christophe Barret, an oil analyst at Credit Agricole Corporate and
Investment Bank.